A review by deb_prosp
Under the Jaguar Sun by Italo Calvino

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Italo Calvino’s short stories are based on the senses. Incomplete, there are three short stories within: taste, hearing, and smell. The eponymous “track” was “Under the Jaguar Sun”, an absolutely fantastic start to the anthology. The most mesmerisingly beautiful description of food during an older couple’s Mexican tour draws you in to experience Calvino’s visceral literary meal. Calvino quite literally makes you eat up his words in his exploration of committed relationships. He paints marriage as an almost cannibalistic ritual — one in which we consume each other in not-so-holy matrimony. Italo Calvino’s Mexican roots shines through his dense prose, making this anthology a little bit of a task to read.